How Hideous It Is! Postmodernism Explained.

books:


	• Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault Stephen R. C. Hicks Scholargy Publishing, Inc., 2004 - 230 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Postmodernism

This is an excellent book for people who want to learn about modern philosophy without going back to college. Extremely well written. Very clear and easier to read than one might imagine. It is full of eye opening information, and I recommend it highly. If one wants to understand the underlying reason for why society has embraced Atheism, relativism, and multiculturalism, this is the book to read.

Essential Analysis of Art History

If you want to understand art history of the recent centuries, with an emphasis on modern and post-modern art, get this book. It's filled with brilliant insights and sound, sensible conclusions about the often confusing and distressing trends of contemporary "serious" artists. It's not light reading, but worth it.

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A postmodern point of view

Hicks thinks postmodernism leads to nihilism (p.201). For me, postmodernism is a breath of fresh air, something hopeful growing out of rock-hard tradition, like a new flower emerging from a crack in an old concrete wall. Hicks tells us that should not listen to postmodernism because he wants to "shield" us against "postmodern strategies". Instead, he wants us to continue "the forward progress of the Enlightenment vision...." (p.201) That is, like Bush, Hicks wants us to "stay the course."

The question, of course, is "What is the forward path?" Like Hicks, I think it is a path away from negative or "nostalgic postmodernism" (see Lois Shawver, Nostalgic Postmodernism). I recognize that postmodern sensibilities usually begin with a sadness and disillusionment. But such disillusionment need not be an entirely negative thing. Sometimes it is just the darkness before the dawn. Even Hicks recognizes his bias against postmodern thinkers, telling us after being excessively critical, "Clearly I am flirting with an 'ad hominem' here." For a corrective, he suggests you listen to the postmoderns.

So, in step I, Lois Shawver, to show you the half-full part of the postmodern glass. I'm biased, too, of course. My bias comes from being a psychologist -- although I was once a philosophy major, and maybe that's important. But now, I have been a therapist for thirty plus years, and so I have spent much of my time listening to people talk about their serious life problems. I believe, that Hicks, like most passionate philosophy critics, is simply pointing to the half-empty part of the glass. Apparently he isn't considering fields like mine, or aware that in other fields there is an embracing an "affirmative postmodernism" (Pauline Rosenau, Post-modernism and the Social Sciences).

Where postmodernism is rooted in philosophy, it is mostly rooted in the works of Jean-Francois Lyotard. But even so, while Lyotard was a philosopher, he saw postmodernism in terms of a social movement (see Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, p. XXV). Postmodern conversation, Lyotard explained, took place where postmodern minds congregated, where people talk-in-order-to-listen to each other (Lyotard, Just Gaming, p.71), Lyotard's vision of the postmodern future was not unlike the vision that founded Google, Yahoo and Amazon (see The Postmodern Condition, p.67). That's not all bad.

This new postmodern democratic knowledge breeds more wisdom. As Surowiecki tells us (in Wisdom of Crowds) research often shows that a group of people can often think better together than any of us can think individually. And, as Lyotard says, while "A self does not amount to much, ... each self exists in a fabric of relations [where each contributes to the conversational process of informing the other]" In other words, if we can listen to each other, we can think better together than we can apart.

So, which way forward? It is up to you. If you puzzle about it for a while, that's postmodern. But if you choose to stay the course, you are definitely not being postmodern, not at this time. On the other hand, if you surf the net for more knowledge, if you check out Hicks, but also other books, maybe even the educational (and entertaining) Utube for ideas and commentary, if you belong to a listserv and think you might also like to blog, then you're probably postmodern or becoming so very quickly, and in that case, I hope you don't let Hicks' alarm shield you from your future personal and intellectual happiness. There may be a little disillusionment with the old schools of thought, but there is also the opportunity to participate in our collaborative invention of a better future.

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How Hideous It Is! Postmodernism Explained.

This book presents a comprehensive, but concise and highly readable intellectual history of Postmodernism from the perspective of a philosophy professor affiliated with The Atlas Society. The author undertook a formidable challenge with this book and has done an amazing job. The author starts with Immanuel Kant's denial of the identity of consciousness, Kant's denial of the validity of inductive reasoning and his metaphysical dualist belief in a noumenal world and a phenomenal world. The author then discusses what ideas of Kant Hegel accepted to be true and which ideas he rejected as Hegel carved out his own legacy.

In a narrative fashion, Dr. Hicks continues to explore Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Marx, Foucalt, Derrida, Russell as well as numerous other prominent thinkers who shaped the Postmodernist movement and even backtracks to cover the Rousseau's contributions to political theory. I especially appreciated how the author carefully sought to integrate the progression of these ideas throughout history, indicating each thinker's intellectual legacy on how he or she was influenced by previous philosophers. Presenting the material in such a hierarchical fashion really enhances the clarity for the reader.

I think Dr. Hicks has done a superb job of delineating the intellectual history of Postmodernism in a clear, concise and integrated fashion. This is an excellent book that can be appreciated by anyone with a pro-Reason and pro-Reality philosophic outlook.

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Postmodenism

This is a difficult book to read but very enlightening. I was introduced to philosophers of whom I had only heard and their theories were explained. I highly recommend a slow and thorough reading of Mr. Hicks work. By the way, it does end on a note of hope.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Tracing postmodernism from its roots in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant to their development in thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Richard Rorty, philosopher Stephen Hicks provides a provocative account of why postmodernism has been the most vigorous intellectual movement of the late 20th century. Why do skeptical and relativistic arguments have such power in the contemporary intellectual world? Why do they have that power in the humanities but not the sciences? Why has a significant portion of the political Left - the same Left that traditionally promoted reason, science, equality for all, and optimism - now switched to themes of anti-reason, anti-science, double standards, and cynicism? Explaining Postmodernism is intellectual history with a polemical twist, providing fresh insights into the debates underlying the furor over political correctness, multiculturalism, and the future of liberal democracy.

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